Announcing Disrupt NY Hackathon Judges And Another Wave Of Tickets

TechCrunch Disrupt NY is only a couple of weeks off, and before the curtain rises on the main conference, we’re running our famous 24-hour Hackathon. It’s a great way to connect with amazing people, launch your hack in front of thousands and possibly follow in the footsteps of GroupMe, a hack from Disrupt 2010 that went on to be acquired a year later by Skype.

Today we’re releasing more tickets and announcing our incredible panel of Hackathon judges who’ll be responsible for choosing the winners that will be featured on the main stage during TechCrunch Disrupt as well as share in the prizes from our 13 partner companies.

We have a full roster of API sponsors and partners putting up a large number of prizes for the Disrupt NY Hackathon. They include: Microsoft BizSpark, Wrigley Energy Gum, Box, CrunchBase, Exadel Appery.io, GM OnStar, Microsoft SkyDrive, NewAer, Pearson, Samsung, Visa, Yammer and Volusion.

Our sponsors help make Disrupt happen. If you are interested in learning more about sponsorship opportunities, please contact our sponsorship team here sponsors@beta.techcrunch.com.

With a wealth of investment experience (especially in mobile), Jalak Jobanputra joins our judging panel as Founding Partner of FuturePerfect Ventures, an early stage venture capital fund in NYC.

Before starting FuturePerfect, Jalak was Director of Mobile Investments at Omidyar Network, and has formerly managed technology and digital media investments at New York City Investment Fund (started by Henry Kravis of KKR fame) as Senior Vice President.

Jalak also spearheaded the formation NYCSeed in 2008 has worked closely with the Bloomberg administration and NYCEDC to grow NYC’s tech/digital sectors. You can find her on Twitter @jalak.

Bringing some hardware hacking chops is Tarikh Korula, Co-founder and CEO of Mahaya, a platform to reveal the world’s stories.

Before founding Mahaya, Tarikh was a winner at Yahoo’s first open Hack Day and his hack, ybox, lives on as open source hardware kits.

A native New Yorker, Tarikh previously co-founded the pioneering hardware and software design studio, Uncommon Projects which built mobile, web and tangible products for Fortune 100 companies including Yahoo! and Microsoft. Korula is a member of root at NYHacker and has been instrumental in helping to develop and shape TechCrunch’s hackathons, beginning with their first in 2010. You can find him on Twitter @tarikh.

Also joining the panel is a man with experience on both sides of the table. Charlie O’Donnell has been active in the NYC startup community for a decade as both venture investor and founder.

At First Round Capital he sourced investments in GroupMe (launched at Disrupt and later sold to Skype) and SinglePlatform, which sold to Constant Contact in 2012, as well as spending time with Union Square Ventures.

Not content with investing along, Charlie founded Path101, a Big Data play in the careers space. Little surprise then that Charlie has been named to Business Insider’s 100 Most Influential People in NY Tech five times. You can find Charlie on Twitter @ceonyc.

Combining entrepreneurship and media savvy, we’ve also got Kathryn Minshew, CEO and Founder of The Muse as one of our judges.

The Muse is a career platform and job discovery tool helping over 3 million people figure out what they want to do with their lives. You might have seen Kathryn in the media – she’s appeared on CNN and Fox, and contributes on entrepreneurship, leadership and career topics to the Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review and has spoken at MIT and Harvard. No wonder she was recently named to Inc.’s 15 Women to Watch in Tech.

If you get to chat with Kathryn, make sure you ask her about vaccinating Rwanda and Malawi. You can find Kathryn on Twitter @KMin.

In case you thought we were getting a bit heavy with hackers and investors, we’ve got you covered with a real scientist: Hilary Mason, the Chief Scientist at bit.ly and renowned cookie chef.

At bit.ly, Hilary finds sense in vast data sets, and is involved in both pure research and product development. She’s also a co-founder of HackNY, a non-profit organization that connects talented student hackers from around the world with startups in NYC. She has discovered two new species, loves to bake cookies, and asks way too many questions – which we’re sure will make her a perfect judge. You can find Hilary on Twitter @hmason.

As a seasoned early stage investor with lots of NYC runs under his belt, we’re excited to have David Tisch, Founder and Managing Partner of BoxGroup contributing his expertise & insights.

BoxGroup is a NYC boutique seed-stage capital firm with investments in companies like Boxee, fab.com, Flavors.me, Goodsie, Behance, art.sy, Lore, Skillshare, GroupMe, DataMinr and many more. David is also the co-founder of TechStars NYC and was named to Mayor Bloomberg’s Advisory Council on Technology as well as serving on the Investor Board of Venture for America. He is also a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal’s ‘The Accelerators’ online blog – you can find him on Twitter @davetisch.